Match Review: Swiss FC vs TGA Rangers FC

• MD Paul Le Helloco
• -- Heinz Braegger
• -- Marc Fink
• -- Sean Sukarman
• -- Ivan Gomez
• -- Mohamed Aly
• -- Takayasu Yamamoto
• -- Joe Giani
• -- Gordon Cyr
• -- Leonard Kang
• -- Roy Lloret

• -- Urs Brutsch

12 - 17 -12

The above numbers are not the measurements of some super skinny model, no it's the headcount of Swiss FC on Friday and Saturday before the game against Rangers. On Friday we were down to 12, but magically that number went up to 17, giving the coach a potential headache (but a luxury headache!), only to see the numbers dwindle again on Saturday from 1 pm onwards....and we paid the price for having a small squad. The first half was fairly even, but the Rangers took a 2:0 lead with two majestic headers. The Swiss defenders were not close enough on both occasions. But new boy Leonard then showed his flair: first he delivered a perfect cross to the second post, but Taka was a whisker late for what looked like an easy header. Shortly afterwards Leonard took the ball first time from about 20 meters, and through a sea of players the ball went into the back of the net. The keeper probably saw it too late. Game on! At the break the Swiss had to empty their bench, as Sean had a hamstring problem. But the Swiss were showing some of their best football after the break, and after 10 minutes a ball struck a Rangers defender on his arm and the ref did not hesitate. Momo stepped up and converted the penalty confidently. Only two minutes later the Swiss had another shout for a penalty, when Paul looked to have been tripped in the box, but the referee disagreed. The problems for the Swiss started when within a couple of minutes Leonart suffered from cramps and could hardly walk and Marc, in his last game for Swiss, injured his groin. With no subs available, we played with basically nine players for the last 20 minutes, and three of them 50 years or older..... We sat deeper and deeper and Rangers put more and more men forward. 13 minutes before the end the Rangers finally broke through: another header from a very soft free-kick. And when you can bring on Sharples for the last 10 minutes or so against a limping team, you are in good stead. Great to see him back on the pitch, but there was no reason for him to score twice against us in what was pretty much his first involvement in the league this year. Thanks Rangers for a fair game. I wish we had a bench, I think we could have given you a game over 90 minutes, not just 75... Marc Fink played his last game for the team. He returns to Switzerland. We wish him all the best and thanks for your contribution! Two more games before Christmas, and the goal remains: to get points on the board!

• Tuomas Peltoniemi GK
• Fraser Anderson DF
• Jonathan Cloak DF
• Jordan Laing DF
• Sivakumar Arumugam DF
• Nathan Bryer MD
• Paddy Sutton MD
• Umar Ngalim --
• Ryoga Yamada --
• Dominic Booth --
• Kosuke Uchida --

• Jinesh Patel DF
• Mike Sharples ST

Welcome back Sharpy

On a scorching day at turf pitch 2 we started the game with almost half the team not having played for a number of games. The opening was very scrappy, our first touch and passing left a lot to be desired but we did open the scoring just after the water break when Jordan crossed from the left for the onrushing Nate to plant a tidy header over their keeper. It became 2-0 a little while later when the same duo combined, another Jordan corner was headed in by the ginger. Swiss did have good possession at times, looked a threat, and got one back when their player spanked a volley in from outside the box that Tuomas couldn’t see until it was well past him. 2-1 at half time and a lot closer than we thought. We talked about getting back to basics but didn’t mean letting the Swiss equalise from a controversial penalty (but were denied one more obvious next so guess they even themselves out). Now we were having to dig deep and managed to go ahead again with Nate’s hat trick header. The Swiss now struggling with injuries, couldn’t come back and we managed to pull clear with a fourth from the ginger and two sweet strikes from the returning big man Mike Sharples. First goals since the start of the year and everyone in the squad (and hopefully the league) looks forward to having him fully fit very soon. The Swiss battled valiantly and maybe with more of a squad could have caused a real upset. Well done to them. FT: 6-2